


Underwater, I Was Drowning (You Used To Be Such A Good, Good Swimmer)

by emokid6969



Series: Please Come Home [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Illness, Love, Other, Recovery, Romance, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:28:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28371636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emokid6969/pseuds/emokid6969
Summary: No one ships Harry/Draco at Hogwarts except for Harry and Draco themselves. And Hogwarts castle, and all of the portraits, who know true love when they see it. But when Draco gets sick, will Harry see Draco's love? Or has Draco deteriorated beyond all hope?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: Please Come Home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077776
Kudos: 17





	Underwater, I Was Drowning (You Used To Be Such A Good, Good Swimmer)

"You were going to be my friend," says Draco, at the end of third year. Sixth-floor corridor, the small individual-sized bathroom with the orange tiling, the one tucked privately behind the portrait of the Three Maidens, who always asked if you were sure you really needed it before letting you in.

Trelawney had assigned paired divination; Draco had rumors of a genuine first-dynasty elf-made seeing crystal; Harry needed it to predict whether the paired divination would be pop-quizzed at the end of the week.

"The seeing crystal doesn't lie." The seeing crystal was in the shape of a large translucent ball, and it sat between Draco's knees and gave off a moonish, pearly glow. "But I ruined it, because I already knew we would be friends, and I was terrified to fail at destiny, and my terror overwhelmed me."

"What changed?" asked Harry, unimpressed, and tired from rumors of the dangerous murderer Sirius Black.

Draco looked sharply at Harry, unsure if Harry was really asking, and decided to respond with genuine carefulness. "I got taller. I mean literally, but also, as I stopped being so frail, I could survive the terror, and wanting your friendship won out."

And so they were friends.

Rumors of Draco spread, that Draco was stalking Harry, that Draco was cursed to love Harry and would turn into a Hippogriff if Harry did not reciprocate Draco's love forever, that Draco had had their heart removed by Lucius long ago and merely had a deranged obsession with "keeping" Harry Potter.

And yet, Draco loved, and Harry, though everyone around them assured them otherwise, knew that Draco loved.

That summer, Harry and Draco sent owls, which were terse with nervousness but which made occasional dips into floweriness, before retreating back into that terseness with the kind fear of accidentally insulting someone with too-flowery of a compliment. When they joined together at the first day back, it seemed that all of Hogwarts itself rejoiced, and the paintings would blush as they passed by, yet each individual student looked at them with wary glances, unable to trust two people so explicitly in love.

And then the ferret transformation caused a sudden sickness in fourth year, so that Draco became everything Harry had been so sure that Draco would never become: Draco forgot Harry, and barely made it to classes, and would accuse Harry of deliberately joining the Triwizard Tournament as a suicidal attempt to leave them while shaking in the thin dressing-gown that was all they could tolerate, the room stuffed with heating charms, and the accusations of this folly started to become so repeated that Harry almost believed that it might be better to truly have deliberately joined the Tournament, just to be away from Draco as they were like this.

On the day of the Lake, Draco pleaded with Harry not to go, or if they went, not to try, not to go drown in the lake. Harry tried to show Draco the book Neville had lent, tried to ask Draco where to find gillyweed, explained that something precious was going to be stolen from them and left in the lake to be lost forever if it was not rescued, but Draco's lips went white with terror and their eyes grew terrifyingly blank with fear. "They think there are things more valuable to you than me," said Draco, whispering. "What if they're right? What if you don't love me like I love you? You're leaving me for the Tournament; it has to be true. I hate you."

Harry shook off Draco's hand where it clutched at their shirt-hem, and closed their bedroom door on Draco's pleas for Harry to stay, to hold them. To stay alive with them, for all of Draco's life.

And so when Harry found Draco tied to the bottom of the lake, guarded by mermaids, it wasn't a surprise, because Draco had always been the most important to Harry since third-year, but it was a horrible different sort of certainty, because it was at once affirmation of Harry's love for Draco and exactly the deadly situation that Draco had begged Harry to stay away from, which Draco was now embroiled in, unconscious and probably going to yell at Harry for when they woke up.

As Harry swam to the surface, clutching Draco's body as close as possible and losing a certain amount of speed to do so but being still so unable to not hold Draco tightly, out of joyous reunion and mortal terror, they felt Draco's heart beating, insistent and true. Whatever happened, Harry would always stay. One of the mermaids separated from their sisters, swam undulatingly to the surface alongside Harry, spear in one hand. "You know they were charmed to be a sick animal," they said through green lips, teeth sharp and nearly transparent in the water. "We fixed the animal sickness, but someone must still change their blood back from animal's blood, because they cannot breathe on that blood, and will soon die." Harry rose to the surface with Malfoy, and the mermaid gave a small wave with the spear, face grave.

The scoring didn't matter; Krum had come in first, but Harry stayed in the hospital wing as McGonagall, urgent and harried, scanned Draco's body and lifted the ferret transfiguration from their blood.

Harry stayed and watched the color return to Draco's face, the early morning light pale and golden, the moon still high above the Hogwarts castle. Draco woke slowly, peacefully, squeezing the hand Harry had pressed above their heart.

"I missed you, my love," said Draco, and their eyes were clear, and full of joy. (And Harry kissed them through tears of relief.)

**Author's Note:**

> The moon often rises before the sky goes dark. It's not uncommon to see a nearly-full moon above the mountains, clear and glowing in a blue sky, long before sunset, or long after sunrise.


End file.
